Sweet as Sugar

Sweet as Sugar Chapter Ten
Disclaimers Apply

A/N MUCH MUCH MUCH thanks to Gomalley and Venefican for their help!!!

“Stop this!” The Doctor pounded on the viewscreen with his fists, his blood turning to ice in his veins.

“We can’t,” the trio of voices informed him. “Nor can you.”

“Yeah?” he asked, panting slightly with exertion. He stepped back from the viewscreen and turned blazing eyes on his captors.

“Watch me.”

Silently, the three females turned their heads to watch him stride from the observation area, only to fall back, sprawling on the dark stone floor with a gasping thud.

“There is a force screen there. You do not have the access code to exit this chamber.”

The Doctor stood, unable to bring himself to look at the ring below.

“Let me out of this chamber,” he ordered sternly, his awareness seeming to focus on just one point.

The comforting weight of his sonic screwdriver suddenly felt incredibly heavy near his hip. A tiny, irrational part of his mind screamed at him that it was obvious; the slight form of the device was like a red flag for his intentions.

“Right,” he said after a brief pause. “I guess I’m on my own for this one.”

Deftly, he palmed the screwdriver and turned his back on the females, all three staring at him blankly. He felt their eyes on him, and a subtle current in the air almost like electricity as he skimmed the fingers of one hand around the portal to the chamber, smiling slightly.

“Damage done to the Temple of the Lady must be rectified in blood,” the trio informed him lightly.

“The blood of one such as yourself would be a much coveted commodity in this world.” They rose as one but did not approach him.

“Your friend will not be harmed irreparably, Doctor,” they sighed.

“I know.” He shot back, a slight giggle in his voice. “I won’t let her!”


“I don’t know,” Rose prattled to Jack. “This is just…weird!”

“Look,” he replied quietly, well aware of their audience, seen and unseen, “it’s just an act. It means nothing. I’ll still respect you in the morning,” he added as an afterthought.

“God,” she muttered, pressing her fingers over her eyes.

She was kneeling near the dais, her body out of his line of vision. Somehow, she thought, it’s not so bad if she can’t tell someone is looking at her. But knowing Jack could see her nudity, every dimple and freckle of her body, made her blush and want to hide.

“There’s no way out of this, is there?”

“Well, we can do it and get it over with,” he said, a cheeky smile flitting across his features as he reclined on the dais. “Or…”

“Or?” Rose’s eyes lit with hope.

“Or we make a break for it.” Jack pushed himself up on his elbows, making the Champion start towards them.

“Easy there, Killer,” he called. “Just trying to take a look at your competition here.”

Aside, sotto voce, he added, “Rose, stand up!”

“What? No! I’m naked!”

“You haven’t got anything I haven’t seen before! Stand up!” Jack glanced at the Champion; she had stopped moving towards them but she was watching. Everyone was watching.

“You can get the Doctor to jiggle my memory later with one of his sonic thingamajigs and I’ll forget I ever saw you naked. Just get up!”

When she hesitated, his face became hard.

“Rose, they will kill us both if you don’t get up.”

Slowly, she unfolded from her kneeling position and let her eyes fix on the Champion. Rose could taste bile in her throat and winced at the bitter acid that seemed to rise with each breath.

“This is wrong,” she said flatly. “You can’t force me to do this.”

Jack sighed wearily. “You’re not going to have to do anything, Rose,” he muttered under his breath.

“Just fake it for now.” He sat up, careful not to touch her.

“Pretend you’re trying to seduce me.”

“What? How the Hell do I do that? Not in front of people anyway!” She crossed her arms over her chest automatically and felt her face flood with color.

“Jack, I can’t do this!”

“Rose Tyler, I know you. You can do this!”

Something in Jack’s voice straightened her spine. She looked coldly at the Champion and instead of shame and fear, felt rage. Her breath came in a sharp gasp as, for a moment, she felt the golden light that was the heart of the TARDIS, flicker within her once more. She did not know if it was just a memory or a remnant of her attempt to save the Doctor that sent the warm, painful spike of feeling through her but it was enough. She turned her attention to Jack and laid her hands on his bare chest, lowering her face so that their lips were bare centimeters apart.

“Jack,” she breathed, her words barely audible even at so small a distance, “you had better really have a plan. I may kill you if you don’t.”

“I’m too charming to die,” he replied, a grin flashing across his features.

“Just wait for the moment.”

An explosion of noise drew all eyes to the narrow aperture leading to and from the arena. The Champion dropped automatically into a fighter’s crouch, her hands curling as if preparing to grab for a throat. Jack was on his feet, shoving Rose behind him as spread his arms wide; shielding her from whatever danger was coming.

“No gun this time, Jack?” she asked, her voice slightly higher than normal, shaking with sudden, renewed fear.

“I left it in my other thong,” he replied. A moment later, his eyes went wide in surprise.

“Doctor!”

The Doctor swung through the doorway like a ship captain through an airlock.

“Rose!” he shouted. “Jack! Hurry!”

Not slowing down, he threw his jacket to Rose, color staining his cheeks as he caught a glimpse of the flesh he had imagined and been offered, even if it was by the unwitting proxy of the three females above.

“Hurry where?” Rose cried, shrugging into the jacket as Jack grabbed her hand, pulling her after him.

“We’re trapped in here!”

“Not as such!” the Doctor shouted over the sudden din.

Beings meeting every sort of description Rose could have possibly imagined seemed to be welling out of nowhere. They were moving towards them, streaming through the narrow doorway, voices raised in admonishment, horror, and anger. He stopped in his tracks for just a moment, a familiar and manic grin on his features.

“Ha!” he breathed, lunging for a barely-visible seam in the wall of the arena.

“Might want to speed it up a bit here, Doc,” Jack said over his shoulder. “The natives are restless!”

Rose uttered a sound somewhere between a sigh and a ‘meep’ as the seam parted under the Doctor’s touch, a door swinging wide open.

“Oh, you are brilliant!” she cried, dashing ahead of Jack and the Doctor into the brightly lit opening.

The Doctor began walking backwards, facing the growing throng, shoving Jack behind him towards Rose.

“Right, it’s been lovely, tell your insane goddess hello for me but we must be off. Worlds to save, clothing to put on, you know how it all goes, I’m sure!”

He took a few more steps backwards before spinning on his heel.

“Run!” he shouted at his companions.

“Where to?” Jack called, allowing himself a brief moment of appreciation as Rose’s backside flashed beneath the hem of the Doctor’s jacket.

“Till I say stop,” the Doctor called back.

Rose winced, her bare feet slapping painfully on the hard floor. “How did you know that door was there?”

“I didn’t,” the Doctor called back. “But I have amazing luck, you know… Ah!”

He stopped, his sonic screwdriver flashing blue in the white-light of the hall. A massive metal door dropped from the ceiling, closing off the hallway between them and their pursuers.

“Now,” he said, his breath coming in a sigh, “the hard part…”